Old Hammer 40K – Old School Marine Armies That Need Their Rules Back
Goatboy here with some of the old Space Marine chapters that could use a simple detachment, an updated character, and some players getting excited to paint up some models. Come on GW, let’s bring back some old school Space Marine texture to the game!
Thre’s 1000 Chapters out there, and over the decades GW LOVED to flesh out a huge amount of them. But in recent editions, all those rules faded into history and we only get the “big Codex Chapters” and have to use generic Detachments to represent all the cool oddball chapters out there. These are a few Chapters have some fun memories for me from either facing them or playing them in an old Adepticon team event. Let’s look at some ideas I have with some old Space Marine chapters – and how to get them back on the tabletop iwith just a couple pages of White Dwarf rules.
The Exorcists
This is the chapter that tries to utilize Chaos relics for the Emperor. My memory of this army is from an old Adepticon team event where all four of my team members had a Land Raider, a Captain with a Daemon weapon, and a desire to shove that nonsense into the enemies front lines. I think we immobilized a few Land Raiders during that event and the old Daemon Weapon rules bit us in the butt a few times (roll a d6 and add that many attacks to your attack pool but if you rolled a one you hit yourself).
I think building this army detachment would set up the army to utilize the Chaos Space Marine Dark Pacts sort of rule for each unit on top of Oath. You would have a lot of enhancement that are chained Daemon weapons that would do some cool things that are kinda Chaos like. You would mix into some cool stratagems that are both aggressive in their damage ability and utilize burning Chaos Daemons to get your abilities off. I think having a cool character Librarian that gets a little too much into Chaos.
The Flesh Tearers
Rage-fueled space vampires, who like chainsaws – hmmm? This is an obvious one that is easy and just update Gabriel Seth and create an army that mixes some of the Blood Angel bits with a few other cool Stormlance options. You could utilize something like if they charge into combat they get cool bonus like +1 to Attacks and +1 to hit? You would throw in some advance and charge options as well. I think even something like getting even more crazy with their attacks but gaining Hazardous to represent how they really don’t care if they get hit in combat as long as they tear the flesh of the enemy.
The Crimson Fists
Pedro Kantor just needs to come back. He is a design that just begs to get Primarized up and his chapters paint scheme and army type would just fit well in the current game. I think utilizing a shift in the whole Gladius option with some different tactical doctrine styles. This way you could create a unique Marine style that might shift some players from just playing Gladius. I love the idea of the army that mixes a few things together, is still blue, and isn’t too hard to paint. Plus the Crimson Fists are sorta the poster boy of 40K (on the cover of Rogue Trader) with the giant red fist of doom and characters trying to survive an attack.
Special Bonus: Mentor Legion
Come on man, the Mentor Legion (Chapter 888) go back to Rogue Trader and were the testbed chapter for Adeptus Mechanicus weapons systems. You would have a chapter with all kinds of ridiculous and not quite safe weapons to mess with. Just imagine a Chapter with access to a lot of “press your luck” rules mechanics. What’s not to like?
What other Chapters would be neat? The Lamentors are a pretty cool army and I remember playing against Adam from Army Painter in an ATC many years ago. His Lamentors were gorgeous. The Carcathadons are also another fun chapter that has a character you can easily redo into plastic and make look awesome. We don’t need more Primarchs and instead just give us some cool characters that aren’t Ultramarines.
What Old School Chapters do you think most need some mini-rules?
